Today, the Supreme Court canceled the August 5 notification of the Election Department regarding the Ladakh Hill Council elections and directed to issue a new notification within seven days.

The division bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ehsanuddin Amanullah also dismissed the Ladakh administration's plea opposing allotment of the 'plough' symbol to the National Conference (NC) and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on it.

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court had previously rejected the Ladakh administration's plea, which sought to challenge a single bench's decision permitting National Conference (NC) candidates to participate in the forthcoming elections for the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil, using the party symbol.

The administration had approached a division bench of the high court against the August 9 single bench order, which directed the NC to approach the office of the election department of the Ladakh administration to notify the reserved symbol 'plough' already allotted to it. 

As per a notification released by the election department on August 5, the voting for 26 out of the 30 seats in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil, was scheduled for September 10. The counting of votes was set to occur four days later following the election.